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It’s middle of May and we’re still grinding away on the tarpon!  Fishing overall has been OK I’ll say.  Most days we’ve still been having to work a fair bit at it to get a handful of bites.  Though conditions have been fairly good overall now as it seems we’re starting to get somewhat calmer consistent weather out of the southeasterly direction for wind.  The forecast right now is 10mph and under for the foreseeable future so that should be a good thing!  Bait has started to get a little tougher so I’m buying it when I can if I know I have trips coming up and we’re catching it as best we can too to keep up with our needs.  I only fished one day last week on Wednesday but we had a decent day getting about 5 bites I believe.  We had 3 fish up on the wind-on leader though weren’t able to get any rolled over for pictures.  Jumped a couple off, had a hook break on one, and a couple others swam into the bridge.  Just one of those days but still decent action and lots of fun.  We had a good amount of mutton snapper bites as well which was cool too.  Capt. Stephen ran the boat today (Saturday) and just fished a last minute half day this morning but he had a couple tarpon bites and got one on the wind-on leader as mentioned but he got tangled up in the bridge when they were trying to get her rolled over.  But a good catch none the less along with some nurse sharks and muttons he said too.  There were still plenty of fish down at the bridges and I think we’ll have good shots at them for a bit longer here and the nice thing is there hasn’t been a ton of pressure.  A lot of guys are doing other things because fishing has been a little tougher for the tarpon.  Though with my boat we fish hard using the trolling motor and sophisticated electronics so we can pretty much always find the fish just a matter of getting them to bite.  Capt. Stephen is now available to run the boat any day with exception to Thursdays and Sundays, and he’ll do evening trips as well any evening but Sundays.  I am still taking bookings on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays though if Steve gets booked first he’ll take the day.  I have the 29th, 30th and 31st open myself this month and will likely be taking a few taking a few June trips next week though as mentioned Capt. Stephen will book a June trip any time now.  Give me a shout if you want to get something on the books for June I’m likely only going to fish a handful of trips and then let Capt. Stephen run the boat the rest of the time.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina

Fished with my dad and my new Capt. Stephen last week.  This was right after a day when they were chewin’ there butts off.  We worked hard to catch a couple… but that’s how tarpon fishing goes!  This video was shot by Landon our new videographer and he’ll be riding with me on occasion making videos like this.

This week we tarpon fished a couple days.  We had a crazy windstorm event on Sunday with 30+ mph winds that really stirred things up.  Monday was much nicer but a bit of a northwest breeze and things cool off believe it or not.  Tarpon weren’t super happy but we managed to catch a couple out of 3 or so bites I think.  Hard day where we had to grind but had the bridges to ourselves more or less.  Tuesday was slicked out flat calm.  Things started a little slow for us but we saw tarpon rolling everywhere.  After some persistence and jumping around a bit for an hour or so we started getting bit.  A few good rallies here & there and we ended up getting 4 tarpon to the leader.  None boatside unfortunately but close.  I think we had 8 or so bites total so pretty good fishing overall and again hardly a sole fishing at the bridge which was nice.  Today I had my same anglers from the previous day and even though I’m not usually doing anything but tarpon fishing now this time of year I did give them the option to try permit fishing in the gulf as it was one of my regulars who hadn’t had that opportunity before.  We didn’t have super good conditions but we had pretty good fishing landing 3 permit and losing a few others to sharks and breakoffs.  I have a few days open left in May I really can’t say what to expect at this point but there are still a good number of fish around and the bridges are generally not too busy as lots of guides are doing other things so at least you have that going for you.  Capt. Trentin has plenty of dates available too and has been catching fish too and doing a little different routine fishing some local canals and stuff.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina

Here’s the YouTube video from last week.  If you really would like our videographer to ride along on your fishing day let me know.  I’ll be asking my regulars and clients when it’s only one or two people on occasion, but if you want to request it I’ll see if I can make it happen.

And also here are a few clips from this weeks action…

Well I can’t believe it April is almost over!  Seems like time flies when you are having fun right?  We’ve been having lots of fun tarpon fishing here’s the low down on what’s been going on.  Right now the bridges and atlantic ocean side are filled with fish.  Both tides honestly have been productive and had their moments.  Some days it’s happened early on and some days it happens later when you’ve given up hope – but that’s fishing!  The backcountry tarpon fishing is not really happening but should get better as we get more into the summer time hopefully.  But I’ve been pretty much just bridge fishing lately and it’s been decent.  We’ve had a couple days I would call really good, and then most other days we’ve been having to work at it to get our 2 or 3 bites a trip.  Not really sure what’s going on normally April is a bit more productive but that’s just how it’s been.  Though on a positive note maybe it’s a good thing that the fish have been a little more finicky as that may lead to better fishing come May and June since the fish haven’t been beaten up too badly.  One can hope right?  Bait has been fairly easy as is usually the case for April though as we get into May sometimes that gets a little tougher.  The bridges haven’t been super busy which has been nice a lot of guys are mixing it up and doing other stuff since the tarpon fishing has taken a bit of work.   I still have a handful of days open in May, and Capt. Trent who runs my skiff still has plenty of openings too.  Capt. Brandon is pretty much all booked up but may have an opening here or there.  Capt. Stephen who is running my boat on my days off has a few days open as well he’s currently doing Fridays and Saturdays, and will be available for some evening fishing in May and June as well.  I’ve had Stephen out with me on several charters and helping him get dialed in, and we’re sharing bait duties so that makes things easier on both of us.  If you want to get out in May give me a shout I’ll let you know what I might have available.  I’m not yet taking June bookings though I will probably start taking a few bookings in a couple of weeks.

Capt. Rick Stanczyk
Instagram: @richardstanczyk
Facebook: Islamorada Tarpon Fishing
YouTube: Bud n’ Mary’s Marina